Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan are authors of the book Uncorking the Caucasus: Wines from Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia and this week they joined us from ArmAs Winery in Armenia. Charine and Matthew tell the most incredible stories about wine travels through less-explored regions, like Serbia, and share a plethora of #W25Challenge fodder for all of us! We couldn’t get enough of this dynamic duo and we’re quite sure you’ll fall in love with them and want to follow their Exotic Wine Travels.
Listen along:
We were all over the world today during this recording! Steph was still hanging out in Italy, Val was in Colorado, and our guests, Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan, joined us from, ArmAs winery in Armenia, where it was 10 o’clock in the evening and there was a birthday party for the owner in full swing. So, just when we thought it was fun to be us, you know, drinking and podcasting in the middle of the day … can you imagine being Matthew and Charine for a day? And yay Skype!
In our glasses today:
Val: Chateau Sainte-Eulalie 2012 Minervois La Liviniere, La Cantilene. This is a blend of Carignan from 100-year-old vines, Syrah and Grenache from the Langeudoc.
Steph: Aperol spritz. “When we were in Liguria, we had a spritz daily. Now that we’ve been in Umbria for over 2 weeks, I have them now and then. I think Aperol spritzes pair best with sunny patios and people watching.”
Speaking of people watching, we’ve had our eyes on the Exotic Wine Travel adventures for some time and we were finally able to catch up with the creators. We hope you enjoy the interview this week with Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charene Tan.
In May 2015, after four years of deliberating and planning together, Charine Tan and Dr. Matthew Horkey sold almost all of their possessions, dropped the comfort and security of their lucrative careers, and left Singapore to travel around the world with a dream of building a location-independent business and to absorb the world’s lessons. Driven by a common passion for wine, they ended up diverting all their attention and resources to the self-study of wine as they traveled through Western Europe, the Caucasus, ex-Yugoslavia, and Mexico in the past year. Uncorking the Caucasus is the first of a series of wine travel books. They also share wine travel tips, videos, wine-related stories, and exciting finds from lesser-known wine regions on their website Exotic Wine Travel.
We hope you enjoyed our chat with Exotic Wine Travel founders, Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan. We sure did, and could not get enough of their stories about traveling through lesser known wine regions. Charine shared a particularly funny tale of being shown into a wine maker’s home in Serbia. They were then left alone to ponder all the guns and knives on the wall as music blared downstairs. Meanwhile, while the owner went outside to smoke.
What Matthew and Charine shared with us is the very core of why we love wine and why we do what we do. Not only do you meet the most interesting people, but you meet a lot of people who have a story to tell. You also meet the people who tell the most incredible stories that bring wine alive. Yes, we often tout wine as being a grocery, a necessity. However, through this podcast and the perspectives our guests have offered, we’ve made it pretty clear that there is always more to the wine story. One doesn’t need to have a special password or vocabulary to access the social and cultural aspects of wine. Our guests this week have also shown us how a common language isn’t even necessary to engage over a glass of wine. Honestly, we could have chatted with them a lot longer, and we don’t believe this will be the last our listeners will hear about Exotic Wine Travel.
We do encourage you to check out their brand new book, Uncorking the Caucasus: Wines from Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia for more insight into wines that are slowly making their way into the mainstream market. Slowly. This book does a fantastic job of explaining why we don’t see more of these wines. We also get some great recommendations for wines that have plenty of backstory. What better way to up your #W25Challenge game than this?
Factoid: (from Uncorking the Caucasus): Armenia is believed to have the oldest winery in the world (although we know that wine making and grape growing goes back even further in Georgia to about 8000 B.C.). However, the caves at Areni-1 date back to nearly 4000 BC. Jancis Robinson also mentions the archeological evidence of this in her Oxford Companion to Wine, describes the caves, and that this announcement has been only since 2011.
SHOUTOUTS:
Steph: Since this is my last podcast recording while I’m in Italy, I would like to officially thank a few people and recognize them.
- Giuseppe Nuzzaci – owner and operator of Villa Nuba apartments in Perugia
- Susan Guerra – owner and operator of her new business called Via del Vino Food & Wine Tours in Perugia
- Joe Rehmer – part of the Scacciadiavoli winery team and owner of Microclima Vini & Vinili wine bar in Foligno
Val:
- Ya Ya’s Euro Bistro We had such a lovely lunch there yesterday with Sam as our server. Let me tell you they have it down – great wine program, stemware, and, oh by the way, they bring the bottle to your table and pour it when you’re ordering by the glass. That’s how I was trained, and it really does add a touch of class. Not to mention I’ve been served the wrong wine numerous times & this mitigates that uncomfortable conversation and little smudge on a dining experience. Great job, guys!
- Side Hustle Wino gave us some insight into her new wine journey and the W25 ladies some love on her new blog. We hope you’ll check it out and show her some social media love as well!
- Libsyn, our syndication/hosting site featured us in their podcast blog, The Feed, as one of their Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts! Thanks Libsyn – you make putting this show together and destination publishing an absolute joy. We love their team, their tools, and their podcast,
Patreon Love:
Thank you so much to our Patreon supporters! Sending out some Patreon Love to
- Jeff E from the hilarious drinking show, We Like Drinking
- We love you Meg from South Dakota!
- Thank you Clay from Arizona!
- Also, thank you so much to Jon in California!
To learn more and become a Winetastic Listener Supporter for only $1 per month, check out our patron only content at https://www.patreon.com/winetwofivepodcast!
For all listeners who pledge $5/month or more we are sending out our custom govino logo glasses! These are a fun new Patreon Perk!
At the $10/month level you’ll receive a set of two glasses. At the $20/month level you’ll receive a set of four!
We thank you for being a vital part of the W25 listening and sipping community. (All glasses will be mailed out after credit cards are charged on the first of the month; you can stop/change your pledge level at any time after the first month.) We hope you’ll post pictures of your #W25Challenge entries using your new govino logo glasses, too!
Share the love:
Please share Wine Two Five with your friends and online community, and we certainly appreciate all your involvement and feedback. Leave us a burning wine question or comment on speakpipe. iTunes love is always appreciated in the form of a glowing iTunes review as well. For your listening pleasure, whether IOS or Android, we are also on iHeartRadio! So share our fun W25 community with all the wine lovers in your life!
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Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and on the Vino With Val FB page, and on instagram as Vino with Val.
You can find Steph on Twitter @Albarellosoap and on the AlbarelloSoap FB page, and check out the videos on the Albarello YouTube channel! Steph is also on instagram as the Wine Heroine.
Val: One more thing … don’t forget to use the #W25Challenge when you are trying new wines and drinks to win an opportunity to co-host the show with us. Until next week …. Cheers!
Check out the entire episode: